YouTube and Google are relatives, they are ranked numbers 1 and 2 as the most used search engines in the world, but they promote videos in very different ways. Which actually is a good thing.
You see, trying to rank videos on both platforms diversifies risk. YouTube could make a change that could drop your videos from search or suggest, showing it less and the same with Google. Because they have different rules, you can build viewers up on both and protect yourself from their mood swings. So let’s look at the difference between the two and how they work.
You tend to find people go to Google because they want fast answers that are text-based (not a good start for video there)
People go to YouTube to watch videos, and they tend to want to go into a little more depth on the topic. The way the platforms is designed means people can spend hours there without ever leaving.
Google only points people in the direction of the answers. It doesn’t provide them. (Well actually that’s not true, it does now. You might have noticed the text at the top of search that briefly answers your question, this is pulled from a website and displayed by Google)
So if you make content that is educational and people search for, both YouTube and Google can work for you. Because of this, they have different algorithms that rank content higher.
How YouTube search displays results:
Youtube’s search is pretty simple, you type in your query and it displays results.
The thing that complicates this is YouTube’s trump card over Google and it tends to build a lot of views and has the potential to send you viral. It’s known as suggested views.
This video will teach you the difference and why you need to focus on both.
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How Google search displays results:
Google displays video search results in a few ways, the first is with the, the largest thumbnail you’ll ever find, really this is for us, better than ranking a website at the top of the page, just look at it!
The next way they display things is, again, high up the main page on a video carousel. They’re still giving video quite a lot of priority here.
Finally, they have their dedicated video search page, which like YouTube, displays a list of videos. Most will be from YouTube but it will also display links to a site with a video on it from that topic.
How YouTube ranks videos:
YouTube’s ranking algorithm is based on watch time and click-though rates. If people click on a video, it means its relevant to the user search or interest and builds this metric.
If they then watch to the end, it builds up what is know as watch time, the higher the click-through rate percentage and watch time, the more likely your content is to rank.
How Google ranks videos:
Google does not rank videos in the same way as YouTube.
Going back to the image earlier in the article, you might have noticed our video ranks number one on Google, I mean boy oh boy, look at that massive video! But on YouTube…Nope, its number 2 and number 3 on google is number one!!!
So how has this happened?
Google looks at the relevance of a title to the search term and then how many links point to that video. Basically, if someone links to your video from their website in a blog, it sends a positive signal that this content is good and Google could boost it.
It’s worth noting that not all links are worth the same. Sites with a higher domain authority like Forbes or the Huffington post will carry more weight with Google than a link for say our own website.
Google also appears to prefer shorter videos too, which is another bonus since YouTube is trying to promote longer videos, it means businesses like us that want to make shorter content still stand a good chance of getting found.
It is also believed that the keywords in your description are picked up by Google too.
Many moons ago we were told to write long descriptions under our YouTube videos to help them rank. Then we werere told the top four lines were the only ones read by YouTube, but some believe that its worth sticking to the old system because Google still reads the rest!
The awesome thing about how Google ranks videos is that not only does someone linking to your video send a ranking signal but you can then also build your YouTube metrics up from it. If that person shared their article to 10,000 twitter followers, it’s likely to get your video more views and build your watch time!! So Google can grow your YouTube channel’s stats even with different ranking factors.
And then these people can find your content on YouTube and link to it to build your Google rank! These guys are powerful together.
In fact, ranking videos on Google is a big part of our own growth strategy for the next ten years, when you look at our most viewed videos from before we actually tried to grow our YouTube channel, you can see the top viewed videos have brought in a tonne of traffic from Google.
That means every time you release a new video you need to share it on Twitter, on your website, on Facebook, etc, to stand a chance of getting it in front of the right people as well as building that watch time and click-through rate for YouTube.
So if you’ve got a blog and you think this contents relevant.
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